The residual heat generated by
the Equinix data centre on the A10 Amsterdam ring road will partly be used to
heat the University of Amsterdam buildings in the city’sscience park, the Parool has reported.
In the
future, Equinix hopes to deliver the remainder of its surplus heat to the
district heating network known as stadsverwarming which already heats some
70,000 homes in the capital, the paper said.
In 2016, Amsterdam city council
published a plan to rid the city of gas-fired cooking and central heating by
2050. The city has plans to build 50,000 new homes within the next 10 years and
none will have gas heating or cooking facilities.
Instead, the homes will be heated
by surplus heat generated by industry – and server farms are an excellent
source. There are some 35 data centres in and around Amsterdam and Schiphol
airport, each holding tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of
computers which are at work day and night.
Together, they generate enough
surplus heat to warm up half of Amsterdam, Stijn Grove of the Dutch Data Centre
Association told the paper. The DDA estimates that a single 30,000 m2 server
farm generates as much heat as the entire catering sector – hotels, restaurants
and cafés –used in 2015.
But many
problems still have to be ironed out before the excess heat created at the data
centres can be used to heat Amsterdam. Chief among these is transport –
expensive pipelines are necessary – and the need to raise the temperature of
the residual warmth to residential standards.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says billionaires should pay "significantly" more in taxes (AFP Photo/Etienne LAURENT)
Washington
(AFP) - Bill Gates says he has paid more than $10 billion in taxes over a
lifetime but billionaires like him should pay "significantly" more
because they benefit more from the system.
The
Microsoft co-founder, the world's second richest man after Amazon's Jeff Bezos,
was critical of a recent US tax overhaul that slashed corporate taxes and
lowered the top bracket for individual income.
"I've
paid more taxes, over $10 billion, than anyone else, but the government should
require the people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes," he
said in an interview Sunday with CNN.
He said the
tax overhaul passed in December favors the rich despite Republican claims it
will help the middle and working classes.
"People
who are wealthier tended to get dramatically more benefits than the middle
class or those who are poor, and so it runs counter to the general trend you'd
like to see, where the safety net is getting stronger and those at the top are
paying higher taxes," he said.
With a
sixth of the US population living in what he called "disappointing"
conditions, he said US policymakers need to think about rising inequality and
ask, "Why aren't we doing a better job for those people?"
Palmreading could take on a whole new meaning thanks to a new invention from Japan: an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body (AFP Photo/TORU YAMANAKA)
Tokyo (AFP)
- Palmreading could take on a whole new meaning thanks to a new invention from
Japan: an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the
body.
The
band-aid-like device is just one millimetre thick and can monitor important
health data as well as send and receive messages, including emojis.
Takao
Someya, the University of Tokyo professor who developed the device, envisions
it as a boon for medical professionals with bed-ridden or far-flung patients,
as well as family living far from their relatives.
"With
this, even in home-care settings, you can achieve seamless sharing of medical
data with your home doctors, who then would be able to communicate back to
their patients," he told AFP.
Slapped
onto the palm or back of a hand, it could flash reminders to patients to take
their medicine, or even allow far-away grandchildren to communicate with their
grandparents.
"Place
displays on your skin, and you would feel as if it is part of your body. When
you have messages sent to your hand, you would feel emotional closeness to the
sender," Someya said.
"I
think a grandfather who receives a message saying 'I love you' from his
grandchild, they would feel the warmth, too."
A man holds
an ultra-thin elastic display equipped with a light emitting diode, newly
developed
by Professor Takao Someya of Tokyo University (AFP Photo/ TORU YAMANAKA)
The
invention could prove particularly useful in Japan, with its rapidly ageing
population, replacing the need for in-person checks by offering continuous,
non-invasive monitoring of the sick and frail, Someya told AFP.
The display
consists of a 16-by-24 array of micro LEDs and stretchable wiring mounted on a
rubber sheet.
It also
incorporates a lightweight sensor composed of a breathable "nanomesh"
electrode, and a wireless communication module.
"Because
this device can stretch, we now can paste a display on things with complex
shapes, like skin," Someya said.
It can be
placed on the human body for a week without causing skin inflammation, and is
light enough that users might eventually even forget they are wearing it.
Along with
medical applications, Someya hopes the device could eventually lead to wearable
displays for joggers to monitor heart rates or check running routes.
He imagines
labourers using the displays to consult manuals on their arms while working.
The device
will be showcased at the annual meeting of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science in Texas over the weekend.
Someya
created the device in partnership with Japanese printing giant Dai Nippon
Printing, which hopes to put it on the market within three years.
"Electronic skin" -- an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body -- could revolutionise healthcare, its Japanese creator says https://t.co/llJK698yRwpic.twitter.com/oLA3HtltMg
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee perform onstage at the Billboard Latin Music Awards at Watsco Center on April 27, 2017 in Coral Gables, Florida. (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP/Sergi Alexander)
It's
another viral dancing sensation. And once again, it's from Daddy Yankee.
The Puerto
Rican king of reggaeton who co-wrote "Despacito" has people around
the world moving their hips with his latest song, "Dura."
Millions of
people have clicked on online videos inspired by "Dura" as aspiring
dancers around the world -- from fresh-faced children to top models to
endearing elderly people -- find their groove, with varying degrees of skill or
stiffness.
"I'm
beyond honored and feel very blessed. You make music for an audience,"
Daddy Yankee told AFP. "And the audience has made this song in their own
organic, spontaneous way."
Daddy
Yankee helped bring reggaeton -- a Latin dance music, with roots in Jamaican
dancehall and the style of hip-hop, that was historically associated with the
marginalized Afro-Puerto Rican community -- to a global audience starting with
his 2004 hit "Gasolina."
But
"Dura" marks a fresh turn in the 41-year-old singer and rapper's
career as the song has taken off based largely on how fans appropriate it.
"Why
have so many people -- even babies -- liked it?" he asked rhetorically.
"Well, some things you can't explain. It's the magic of music, a magic
that just happens and that you can't understand."
He has one
theory. "Dura," he said, harks back to "the rhythm and nostalgia
for music of the late 1980s and early 1990s, that essence of reggae that
inspired reggaeton."
No excuse
not to dance
Daddy
Yankee, whose real name is Ramon Luis Ayala, released "Dura" on
January 18. The next day, Colombian model Andrea Valdiri posted a video on
Instagram, barefoot in sweatpants and a loose white top, as she danced to
"Dura" with her hands rubbing sensually around her body.
The video
has been viewed nearly nine million times on her Instagram account and in Daddy
Yankee's repost. It also set off a rush of new homemade interpretations of the
song -- posted under hashtag #DuraChallenge.
Daddy
Yankee's original video has been seen nearly 200 million times on YouTube.
More
recently, the 25-year-old Valdiri has been eclipsed as the #DuraChallenge star
by a nonagenarian.
Rachel
Phillipsen, a 90-year-old New Yorker of Puerto Rican origin, follows a zumba
instructor with impressive rhythm and coordination as Daddy Yankee sings in
Spanish, "I like how you move that ram-pam-pam." The video has
generated 5.5 million clicks.
"There
are no excuses not to dance. The excuse is all in your mind," the zumba
instructor, Rina Elena Martinez (@rina_25), told AFP. The Venezuelan appears in
the video shot in a gym in Miami.
Daddy
Yankee agreed. "The 90-year-old grandmother was phenomenal," he said,
adding: "No doubt that video gives encouragement to the whole world."
Celebrities
who have taken the #DuraChallenge include Venezuelan model Diosa Canales,
Dominican reggaeton singer Natti Natasha and the Puerto Rican former Miss
Universe Zuleyka Rivera, who also appeared in the "Despacito" video.
"Dura,"
which literally means "hard" but could also mean "hot" when
it comes to appearance, is an ode to a beautiful woman.
"You're
one tough mama," Daddy Yankee sings, with lines such as "If it's a
crime to be so beautiful / I'll arrest you in my bed and put you in
handcuffs."
Musically,
the song returns to early reggaeton without the pop melodies that mega-stars
such as Shakira, Enrique Iglesias or "Despacito" co-writer Luis Fonsi
deployed to bring the genre to the anglo pop world.
In a retro
video, Daddy Yankee and his cohorts dance around well-trodden streets covered
with vibrant street art. Women, who so often take passive roles in highly
sexual songs, assume the lead in showing their moves.
"We
were inspired by the bright colors of the '90s and a bit of the era's fashion.
I wanted to make this fun and to show that the song could empower women,"
Daddy Yankee said.
The video
was directed by Carlos Perez, the Puerto Rican who shot "Despacito"
and has worked with Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony.
"Despacito"
also spawned spoofs and has made history as the most-watched video on YouTube
with more than 4.8 billion views.
Helped by a
remix featuring Justin Bieber, "Despacito" tied a record by spending
16 weeks on top of the benchmark Billboard singles chart in the United States
-- a major feat in a country where non-English songs rarely fare well.
"Dura"
as of Friday was number 10 on Spotify's global singles chart and number one in
several Latin American countries.
California-based IT concern Oracle plans to expand its Dutch data centre
‘significantly’ to meet demand for its integrated cloud services, the
Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday. Financial details were not disclosed but
data centres generally cost several hundred million euros, the paper said. This
is Oracle’s second large investment in the Netherlands in a short time. Two
years ago the company set up a new sales office in Amsterdam to cover
Scandinavia, the Benelux and Germany, marketing Oracle’s cloud services to
companies and institutions. The office has a payroll of 450 people, of whom 75%
come from abroad. The Netherlands is popular as a data storage centre. At the
end of 2016, Google opened a large new €600m data storage centre in Eemshaven.
Microsoft is planning to spend €2bn on a new centre in Wieringermeer while
Equinix of the US is to open a new €160m centre in Amsterdam’s Science
Park, near the Oracle facility.
US online shopping giant Amazon said it has struck a deal with the French government to settle a bill for nearly 200 million euros ($249 million) in unpaid taxes
US online
retailer Amazon said Monday that it has settled a major tax claim in France and
will start declaring all its earnings in the country in a response to building
European pressure on the digital economy giants.
Amazon did
not reveal how much it had paid over a French claim for nearly 200 million
euros ($249 million) covering the period from 2006 to 2010.
It is one
of several American technology giants in the line of fire in Europe over their
tax-avoidance strategies, which often sees them route their income through
low-tax nations -- in Amazon's case, Luxembourg.
French
President Emmanuel Macron has proposed a new mechanism for taxing US tech
companies that would take into account the volume of sales generated in each
European country, rather than on the profits that are booked through low-tax
jurisdictions.
Amazon announced
a similar tax settlement deal with Italy in December, paying 100 million euros
to settle an investigation into suspected tax evasion from 2011 to 2015, while
also agreeing to declare its income locally.
In 2012,
Amazon revealed that it had been hit with a 198-million-euro tax bill in France
for back taxes, interest and penalties relating to income spread between
different jurisdictions.
At the
time, the company had said it disagreed with the French assessment and vowed to
"vigorously" fight it.
In its
statement Monday, Amazon said it had created a French subsidiary for its
European operations in August 2015, "with all retail revenues, expenses,
profits and taxes due now accounted for in France."
The
retailer also said it had invested over 2 billion euros in France since 2010,
creating more than 5,500 jobs.
'Electroshock' plan
European
officials have vowed to make the digital economy giants known as GAFA --
Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple -- pay a greater share of their taxes in the
countries where they earn their profits.
Under
current EU law, companies based outside the bloc can declare their earnings
from across the 28-nation market in a single country.
That has
led them to pick low-tax nations like Ireland, the Netherlands or Luxembourg --
depriving other member states of revenues, even though they may account for a
bigger share of the earnings.
The
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says such rules cost
governments around the world as much as $240 billion (193 billion euros) a year
in lost revenue, according to a 2015 estimate.
On Sunday,
EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said he would unveil by the
end of March a plan to "create a consensus and an electroshock" on
taxing digital economy revenues.
"The
idea is to be able to identify the activities of digital companies, so we need
a range of indicators -- the number of clicks, the number of IP addresses,
advertising, and eventually revenues... and then we'll find ways to tax
them," Moscovici said.
He said the
new rules would apply to the GAFA giants, as well as accommodation services
like AirBnB and Booking.com.
Changes
underway
American
tech giants appear to believe the European tax revamp is in the cards, with
several already announcing pledges to pay more in each country where they
operate as governments step up their fiscal demands.
Facebook
said in December that it would start declaring advertising revenue in the
countries where they have offices, instead of recording it at its international
headquarters in Dublin.
"We
believe that moving to a local selling structure will provide more transparency
to governments and policy makers around the world," the social network's
financial chief Dave Wehner said at the time.
France is
pursuing Google for 1.12 billion euros it says it owes in back taxes, after
paying just 6.7 million euros in corporate tax for 2015 by booking most of its
revenues through Ireland.
A court
initially ruled that Google was not liable for the tax claim, but the
government has appealed the decision -- while saying it was still open to a
settlement.
The search
giant has already agreed to fiscal deals with Britain and Italy over the Irish
tax arrangement.
Amazon's
settlement comes as it is also facing a court case in France over claims it has
abused its dominant position on its "marketplace" platform for
third-party vendors.
The finance
ministry said in December that it was seeking a fine of about 10 million euros.
The
Netherlands topped the list of the 28 EU countries for having the most
household connections to the internet, the national statistics office CBS said
on Monday.
In 2017, 98% of Dutch households had connections to the internet,
compared with 87% for the EU as a whole. The Netherlands also led the pack of
those countries with high-speed internet connections, the CBS said.
Luxembourg
and Denmark were one percentage point behind the Netherlands, followed by
Sweden and Finland, at 95%. In 2015 Luxembourg headed the list with 97%, edging
out the Netherlands at 96%.
The share of households with internet connections
is considerably lower in southern and eastern Europe, although both regions are
making gains, said the CBS report, which is based on figures from EU statistics
agency Eurostat.
The Netherlands and Sweden scored the highest at 87% in the
use of mobile internet. The EU average for use of mobile internet by those aged
between 16 and 75 was only 65%.
